Dear Heartland SERVant,
Welcome to the Heartland SERVE Project! Our Heartland SERVE host team is looking forward to “Discovering the Mystery” with you for the week of July 28-August 4, 2007. We have an exciting week planned and pray that all your expectations of serving the Lord for this week will be met and that you experience God changing lives forever!
Registration will take place at the Lakeside High School in Downs, KS. Since most of you will be arriving from the north, we would recommend that you travel Interstate 80 to the Grand Island, NE exit, and proceed south on Highway 281, which merges into Highway 181 at the Kansas border. Once you arrive at the intersection of 181 and 24 at Downs, the high school is directly in front of you. Our “welcome” mat will be out for you! We should have your travel plans confirmed by now, but if you need transportation from an airport, please call and let us know your itinerary. Also, if you have not already contacted us or if something has changed, it would be helpful for us to know if you are bringing a van or suburban that could be used to transport participants to worksites. Contacts regarding the above, or any questions you may have, can be made with the following host team members:
Don & Jan Koops (785) 346-2661 5eagle@ruraltel.net
Mark & Deb Morrison (785) 346-2329 mmorrison@ruraltel.net
Gary & Glennys Doane (785) 454-6648 gdoane@nckcn.com
We are excited to have 70 participants for our 4th SERVE project here in the geographic center of the continental U.S. Individuals and groups are coming from Ontario, Canada; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the states of South Dakota and Michigan. Participants will be housed in the high school for the week and travel to sites in Downs and the neighboring communities of Osborne and Cawker City. The sleeping areas in the high school are air-conditioned, so no fans will be needed. The SERVE groups will be sharing their skills and talents through projects of construction, roofing, painting, yard work, and bringing the good news of salvation.
Some of the events we have planned for the week include:
If you would like some background information about the Osborne County area, visit www.downsks.net; http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/OB/ ; or www.osbornecounty.org. The Heartland SERVE Project website is: http://www.heartlandserve.org, which will have daily updates during the week for your friends and family to check in on.
Our band for the week will be “Nameless Faces” of Wichita, KS. They are back by popular demand along with our speaker Joe Skillen, a dynamic youth pastor from Wichita, KS who is returning to minister to Heartland SERVE for the third year.
As a reminder as you prepare to pack for the week, please remember to bring sleeping bags and air mattresses if you have them available. Also take note of the dress code from Youth Unlimited, which specifies one-piece bathing suits for girls and no Speedos for guys. No short shorts, spaghetti straps, or shirts that promote anti-Christian messages are allowed. Enclosed footwear is required at the job sites. Any personal audio devices such as CD and tape players must include earphones and be used only during free time. Again you are reminded that this is a smoke-free SERVE site.
We look forward to your arrival later this month. We have been praying for you for some time and are anticipating God’s Spirit to be at work in all our hearts at the SERVE 2007 experience. He has a great plan for Heartland SERVE and you are a part of it!
With God’s blessings,
Don Koops
List of Things to Bring